


By the Light of the Moon

by LibbyWeasley



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy Era, F/M, First Kiss, Full Moon, Pining, Stargazing, but not, clueless Jemma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-29 00:56:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21146102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibbyWeasley/pseuds/LibbyWeasley
Summary: After a misunderstanding between them, Jemma asks Fitz to go stargazing with her. But you know what you can’t do by the light of the full moon? That’s right, stargaze. Academy era.





	By the Light of the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @aosficnet2 Promptober day 23 - full moon.

“Come on, Fitz. It will be fun.” Jemma poked her best friend in the ribs until he smiled. They were sitting side by side in the chemistry lab waiting for a sample to finish running. They had already finished all of their calculations, so there was nothing to do except wait. 

“I don’t know. I’m pretty sure the Boiler Room just exists so cadets can get drunk and kiss without consequences.” He scratched his chin as he thought, completely ignoring the look of disbelief she was giving him. “And I have other stuff to do, anyway.”

“Oh, you do not! Sally and I went last week and it was fun. But it would be more fun if you were there with me.”

She glanced at him and saw him looking back at her, an intense look of concentration on his face. Finally, he seemed to make up his mind. 

“Yeah? You’d really have more fun with me?”

“Of course. Everything is always better with you.”

“Alright. I’ll come by your room at 9?”

She knew he’d come around. Sometimes it felt like it was up to her to make sure he socialized like a human. 

“Better make it 9:30. I need to do some studying first.”

“Simmons! It’s Friday night. You don’t need to study.”

“I do if I’m going to get through everything I had planned for this weekend,” she said primly. At least _she_ had been planning on going out as well as studying. If she left him to his own devices he’d have been holed up in his room all weekend. 

“Fine. But starting at 9:30 there is to be no talk of classes or exams until Saturday morning.”

“Deal.”

* * *

Fitz was having a lot more fun than he thought he would when Jemma invited him out. It could be the effects of all the alcohol they’d consumed, but he thought it was more likely that it had to do with the way Simmons — Jemma — was so close to him, her legs draped over his lap. 

“All I’m saying, Fitz, is that it would be horribly boring here without you.”

“Really?” He tried to rest his hand on her knee and chickened out, moving it awkwardly to his side instead. She hadn’t been clear about where the boundaries were. “Because I’m thinking that without you here —“

She sat all the way up, pulling her legs under her and scooting closer to his side. “Fitz! You don’t mean that.”

“Of course I don’t,” he agreed, taking another drink from his bottle. He had known she was attractive from the moment he’d seen her, but tonight she was stunning. She’d done something to her eyes that made it hard not to drown in them and her dress was far more form-fitting than anything she’d ever worn to class. Which was a good thing because he’d never pay attention to anything their professors said if she showed up looking like this. 

“You loooove me,” Jemma sing-songed. 

He flushed. He did love her. Or he thought he did. His head was a little foggy right now. But she was so close and seemed to be expecting an answer. An answer he didn’t have. Palms sweating, he leaned towards her. He didn’t exactly have a lot — or any — experience with kissing or dating, but he had seen a lot of American movies. So he closed his eyes and leaned towards her, his lips seeking hers. 

But instead of her soft lips, he encountered her palm and his eyes popped open at the horrifying realization that she was rejecting him, pushing him away. She gave a nervous laugh and he felt heat race up the back of his neck. 

He didn’t understand. He thought...well, that didn’t really matter, did it?

“Fitz? Fitz!”

Her voice sounded like it was coming from far away and he looked around. He must have been sitting there just staring at her. Gathering his wits he stood up, mumbling, “Gotta use the loo.”

And then he hurried back to his dorm to die of embarrassment on his own.

* * *

Ever since Fitz had disappeared, leaving her alone in the Boiler Room, Jemma had struggled to understand exactly what had happened. 

She finished the last question on the exam and flipped back to the beginning to double check her answers. Fortunately, or unfortunately as the case may have been, this unit in her biochemistry class was basically review so she had lots of free brain power to keep turning over what had happened between her and Fitz. But it didn’t seem to help. It had been four days already and she wasn’t any closer to an answer. 

She quickly redid a few calculations and then started reviewing the facts. Again. It just didn’t add up. She had invited Fitz to the Boiler Room. They had a few drinks. They had a lot of fun. She’d thought they were having a good time. And then he’d run away from her and hadn’t returned. It had taken her hours to finally realize nothing had happened to him and he was safe in his room. 

She let her mind play back what had happened right before that as she worked through the next set of questions, spotting a small error in her work that changed the magnitude of her answer. She was getting sloppy. This distance...argument...whatever it was with Fitz was impacting her work. She needed her best friend back. 

They had been talking, teasing each other. And then he’d pretended to want to kiss her…

Oh. 

He hadn’t been pretending. Fitz had wanted to kiss her. 

She let out a gasp that turned into a cough as several classmates turned her way. She tried to focus on the paper in front of her, but it was no use. The words were swimming in front of her. There were only twenty minutes of class left, so she gathered her things and handed her exam to a very confused looking professor. Jemma Simmons never left an exam early, but there was nothing for it today. 

Jemma spent the rest of the day in her room, working through this new information. 

Fitz had _wanted_ to kiss her. It was a revelation. It changed everything she thought she knew. One of the most basic axioms that guided her universe had proven to be untrue. Because Fitz wasn’t a friend. 

Taking friendship out of the equation changed everything. It opened up so many more possibilities for what they could be. 

He wanted to kiss her. 

And she wanted to kiss him too. 

It seemed obvious once she thought about it like that. How had she missed it? No matter. Reaching for a notebook and a pen, Jemma got to work.

* * *

By Friday, Fitz was starting to feel hopeful that things might one day go back to normal between him and Jemma. He seemed to be the only one who remembered the disaster of the previous weekend. Or, more likely, she remembered perfectly and was doing her best to spare his feelings. 

“Can you measure 50ml of HCl?”

Right. They were in chem lab. He should probably pay attention. But Jemma didn’t seem upset. Simmons. He needed to remember to think of her as Simmons. Much easier that way. Simmons was a scientific genius who loved homework more than was healthy. His best friend. That was all she’d ever be. 

“On it,” he finally responded, reaching for the beaker. 

They worked side by side, falling into a rhythm again, and Fitz almost forgot that he’d made such a fool of himself. But he’d missed her. He’d seen her in class of course, but they normally spent much of their free time together, studying or just talking. But he’d spent the beginning of the week avoiding her and she hadn’t pushed him. 

“Oh, Fitz.” They had finished the experiment, before anyone else, of course, and were cleaning up their glassware. “I was wondering if you’d like to go stargazing with me tonight.”

He looked at her in surprise. An olive branch. He’d be a fool not to take it. They’d spent several evenings looking at the stars together, and he’d always enjoyed her passion for it. This would be a good opportunity to practice keeping those other feelings out of the picture. 

“Yeah. Sounds fun.” Oh, bloody hell. He sounded like a complete wanker. But she didn’t seem to notice. 

Jemma beamed at him. “Lovely. Sunset is at 6:32. So eight o’clock. On the roof of the dorm?”

“Yeah, yeah. Great.”

“See you then!” Jemma shoved her notebook and pens into her bag and hurried off, leaving Fitz staring after her. 

It was only three in the afternoon, which meant he had hours to think about tonight and how horribly wrong things had gone the last time Jemma had asked him somewhere. But luckily his nerves settled as the hours passed. He even managed to do some homework. The only moment of panic he had before leaving his room was about what to wear. After this last week of missing her he was desperate for things to get back to normal. And stargazing was about as normal as it could get. But he still wanted to look nice. So he tamed his hair the best he could and slipped on a blue cardigan that he knew she liked. 

But no matter what he did, his nerves wouldn’t settle down completely and once he reached the roof, he was fidgety with anxiety. Jemma was nowhere to be seen, but spread out in front of him were blankets, what looked like a picnic basket of snacks, and what was clearly a cheap bottle of wine. But the worst thing about it was that there was a full moon, shining enough light for him to see the rooftop clearly. 

He felt simultaneously hungry and sick to his stomach. He must have misunderstood her. This wasn’t a night for stargazing. There was no way to see the stars with a full moon like that. She must be preparing for a date. Probably with stupid Milton. 

He turned to go before anyone saw him, but was stopped by the sound of her voice calling to him. 

“Fitz. You made it.”

She sounded uncertain and he turned around to face her. 

“Yeah,” he responded warily. 

Instead of saying anything, she sat down and patted the blanket next to her. His feet moved of their own volition and before he knew it he was sinking down next to her. 

“Are you hungry?” she asked, starting to dig through the basket. 

Of course he was hungry, but that wasn’t the primary thing on his mind. He reached for her and could almost feel a jolt as his hand closed around her wrist. 

She looked up. Her dark eyes pulled him in and if he hadn’t already been sure he was in love with her, the look she gave him might have done it right then. 

“Jemma, what’s happening? These aren’t any stars tonight.”

“I know. I wanted to talk to you. To apologize.”

She turned her wrist and slid her hand through his grasp until they were palm to palm. The touch was light but it felt like an unbreakable connection between them and he didn’t dare move for fear of breaking the spell. 

Jemma took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Fitz. I didn’t know you wanted to kiss me. If I had…”

She let the sentence trail off and Fitz leaned closer as if he could catch the words somehow. 

“If you had?” he asked. 

“Then I would have done this.”

She closed the remaining distance between them and the gentle brush of her lips against his felt like heaven. He shifted his body towards hers to try to get closer. He couldn’t have imagined how nice it would feel to be so close to her like this. He could have stayed like that all night, but Jemma’s lips moved more insistently against his and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer. 

Hopefully he wasn’t misunderstanding her this time. 

Eventually he pulled away, but not before memorizing everything about this moment. Just in case. 

“Jemma.”

“Mmmmh.”

Her breath was warm against his neck, where she had tucked her head and was giving him featherlight kisses. 

This was it. The moment he’d been dreading. The moment he feared would ruin things between them. But he couldn’t stop the words from trickling out. 

“I think I love you.”

Jemma reached for him then and pulled his face down to hers again. Somehow he ended up laying down on the blanket with Jemma half on top of him. This was the best night of his life. Except for the niggling doubt in the back of his mind. 

She kissed along his jaw and to his ear before whispering, “I think I love you too.”

He knew his smile was too big for his face. He must look like a bloody idiot, but he couldn’t help it. 

“So what do we do now?” He had meant it to be a serious question about their future, but the effect was ruined by the rumbling of his stomach. 

Jemma laughed and sat up, reaching for the basket once again. 

“Let’s just look at the stars.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
